Bill Gross is founder of the technology incubator Idealab and more companies than I can count (he says “100 companies in last 30 years” so perhaps I can count that high). Mr. Gross tweeted “while on [his] quest for learning in life and at conferences.” (Follow him on Twitter as well as on his blog at http://www.BillGross.com.)
So, a tip of the hat to you, sir: for me, the cost to attend WEF virtually and digest everything on the Davos stream in real time in my PJ’s: $0 (priceless 😉
With his coverage and that of the other quarter of attendees on Twitter, I was able to keep up in real time (which explains why I was cranky and tired this week) and almost felt as though I were in Davos. I appreciated the openess and how many people tweeted, published blog posts from the event, and the access the press had to attendees, with sessions live online in real-time (http://wef.ch/live).
But, sadly, without the incredible Swiss hospitality, food and snow. And the Occupy protesters!
So, from his tweets, here are Bill’s “Twenty Amazing Facts Learned at WEF 2012”
- There are only 52 companies on Earth worth more than Apple’s $97.6B hoard ofcash.
- Kodak invented the digital camera in 1975 & their board buried it b/c it looked too disruptive
- iTunes alone generated 50% more revenues than ALL of #Yahoo last year
- From Angela Merkel – “there are 23 million companies in the EU & there are 23 million jobless.”
- There were ~2,600 attendees & more than 5,000 Army members guarding #Davos – more than 2/attendee!
- There are 371,000 babies born each day. There are 377,900 iPhones sold each day.
- Annual growth in China 9%, India 8%, Africa 5.5%, Europe 0%.
- Over next several years world will need amount of food = to all produced in last 10,000 years!
- 89 percent of young people want a job that helps to change the world for the better.
- In a hyper connected world average is over as we all knew it – we are now competing with the whole planet.
- Spanish unemployment surges to 22.8%. Under 24 years old – 51.4%. Staggering.
- 1 in every 2 people in India is under 25 years old (and they want their piece of the pie).
- Because of corruption, U.S. investment in India went down from $24B in 2010 to $11B last year.
- The U.S. economy grew at its fastest pace in 1 and a half years in the 4th quarter of 2011.
- a: The poorest 2 billion people spend 40-60% of income on food & 15-20% on energy. And 15 b: Each year of secondary school increases a girl’s future wages up to 20 percent.
- 47% of time spent using smartphones is spent on= Facebook.
- Apple’s cash reserve is enough to pay off the total public debt of 8 countries in the EU.
- New era of volatity – the S&P Index moved > 2% more than 60 days in 2011. In 2005 – Zero.
- Avg cost of attending Davos: Food ($2k) + Hotel ($3k) + Flights ($6k) + Transfers ($9k) + EntryFee ($20k) = $40,000
- On Hacking, the Intellectual Attacks come from China & the Financial Attacks come from Russia.
WRT number 19: $9K in transfers?!?
Tags: WEF, Davos, conferences, World Economic Forum, 2012.
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